Virtual Reality the World Over

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Virtual Reality the World Over

In the springtime, a young photographer's fancy turns to – QuickTime VR panoramas.

The newly launched World Wide Panorama project features 180 VR, or virtual reality, panoramas from 40 different countries, all taken on March 20, the vernal equinox.

The project is one of the most ambitious to use Apple's QuickTime VR, a technology for immersive imaging that was introduced nine years ago but has never really taken off.

A VR panorama is a cylindrical, 360-degree image, which, when done well, can give viewers the illusion of standing squarely in the middle of a scene.

VR panoramas are created by standing still and taking a series of pictures while rotating in a circle. The images are stitched together on a computer; sometimes they are formed into a complete sphere that shows the scene overhead and underfoot, as well as all around.

The most popular VR technology is Apple's QuickTime VR, which is available for Mac and Windows. Competing products are available from Ipix and iseemedia.

But while VR photography has become a fixture in real-estate listings, and most digital cameras include software for creating VR panoramas, the format has not become as popular as advocates would hope.

"Immersive imagery is virtual travel, real geography, genuine art and great entertainment," says the World Wide Panorama site. "It is a glimpse into other people's lives, a look around in places we have never been and may never go. It can be unique personal views of the world or dispassionate photojournalism. It deserves to be seen by more people."

The World Wide Panorama project was designed to do just that, explained Landis Bennett, one of the organizers.

"It's amazing technology," Bennett said. "It's much more than just a photograph. But it isn't as popular as it should be. That's why we did this project."

Bennett, a cartographer and VR photographer based in Petaluma, California, teamed up with Don Bain, director of the Geography Computing Facility at the University of California at Berkeley.

The pair put out a call for submissions to the worldwide community of VR enthusiasts, which Bennett estimates to number about 1,500 hobbyists and professionals.

The pair received 182 submissions from amateurs and professionals alike, including VR luminaries like photographer Hans Nyberg, who maintains the popular Panoramas site.

Many of the panoramas are available as large, detailed, full-screen images. Some include sound.

"This is by far and away the biggest coordinated event among independent VR producers," Bennett said. "We were extremely pleased with the turnout ... and the quality of the work is really outstanding."

"I always marvel at what people can come up with," he said. "It wasn't the best of days weather-wise (it rained in much of Europe), but the creativity of photographers all over the world knows no limits."

Quan said he and many of his association's members were puzzled by the relative unpopularity of VR panoramas. He attributed the slow uptake to the lack of broadband; the best images are 2 MB and up, which is painful to download on a slow connection.

Quan said he hopes new technology, particularly big wide-screen HDTVs, will usher in a new era of virtual-reality photography.

"We think with all the big plasma TVs, we'll see a lot more," he said. "It's a great format for looking at VRs of the Grand Canyon."